The Gospel of the Kingdom
John the Baptist The story of Christianity and God's plan of redemption begins with John the Baptist. John and Jesus alike are the prophets of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the Kingdom of God. With John, the Old Testament Law finally comes to a close, for Jesus said: "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John." Matthew 11:11-13. John's father was a temple priest of the course of Abia, and his mother was also of Aaron's descent. Although born in a priestly family, John never served as a priest. John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins, being that Mary, the mother of Jesus and Elisabeth were cousins. John was only about six months older than Jesus. John's parents were quite old when John was conceived and the birth in itself was a miracle. An angel appeared to Zachariah and said to him, "And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb; and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:14-17 (NKJV). The angel is thus letting us know that the prophecies of Malachi were being fulfilled in John. When Mary visited Elisabeth upon hearing that she was pregnant with the Holy Ghost, the baby John leaped within Elisabeth's womb for joy. John began a preparatory ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius, AD 26 or 27. His name the "Baptist" may be the Greek equivalent of an Essene bather and may have grown up with the Essenes in the desert after his aged parents, Zachariah and Elisabeth died. If that is true, it would be the most logical place for God to bring John up. Retreat from the world to express a monastic fidelity to God bound the Essenes to a life of penitential asceticism, fostering union with God in the wastelands of Judea where they flourished at the time of Jesus. They mingled their goods and earnings in a common treasury and obeyed the Chasidic motto, "Mine and thine belong to Thee." They believed in the Divinity of a Messiah who they called the "Teacher of Righteousness" and who had died a violent death at the hands of the sons of darkness. We can understand this background to be an excellent teacher for the forerunner of Christ. The Essenes most certainly pointed to Jesus. They were finally wiped out by the Romans in 70 AD. Most of the Jews followed the Pharisees when John appeared, he was different than what Judea was used to. John grew up among the crags of Eastern Judea, a rugged area near where the Jordan river empties into the Dead Sea and he appears suddenly as a prophet from the Lord. He dressed different, he had long hair and his beard was long, he ate different, never owning anything, never to drink wine, he would spend his time in prayer and off by himself. It was known that his drink was water of the river and that he lived on locusts and wild honey. The locusts of Palestine were similar to our grasshoppers, four of the seven or more species were allowed by the Mosaic Law to be eaten and were a sustainable source of protein. His clothing was a tunic of camel skin. Camel's hair was woven into cloth, some of it exceedingly fine and soft, but usually course and rough and used for making the coats of shepherds and camel drivers and for covering tents. He went barefoot and his robe of camel hair apparently reduced to a loin cloth and a simple heavy leather belt tied at the waist. Elijah dressed like that and John reminded the people of their old-time prophets who had spoken out in past times, speaking God's words of warning and rebuke to a people who had sometimes strayed. The Kingdom of God was at hand and John's announcement found a receptive audience. He avoided the cities, preferring rather to preach in the countryside. Despite his eccentricities, John was very popular with the people and they flocked to him in great numbers. Many would come from Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee to hear his message, "repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Simple enough, but the Jewish leaders were aloof. John was not the Messiah so there was no reason for interest and there was no indication that they ever took steps against him, it was utter indifference. "I must decrease" he said, Jesus would soon come and call for us to deny ourselves. Servant attitude, same humility, John knew in Spirit. "The word of God came to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." Luke 3:2-4.(NKJV) John had come among the Jews, purifying people by baptism and prophesying a new day at hand. Non-Jews who wished to adopt Judaism as their own religion were baptized as a symbol of spiritual cleansing but the Jews as a rule were not used to thinking that they needed baptism. The prideful self-righteous mind thinks nothing of repentance. The Jews practiced religious washings of the body as legal Jerusalem, Judea, and all the region around came out to John who had selected Jericho to be his headquarters. It was the largest of the towns along the banks of the Jordan and he wished to stir up expectation and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. When the Scribes and Pharisees came out from Jerusalem with their broad phylacteries and fancy robes, the ordinary crowd made room for these exalted persons but they got no deference from John. On the contrary, he met them with a tongue- lashing which must have amazed and silenced them as completely as though he had struck them in the face. "Oh generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come." His eyes ablaze, he stood on the riverbank and exhorted all who came to repent of their sins and prepare for the coming day of judgment. John's voice was commanding. The believers came by the multitudes and heeded John's call but the skeptics sat on the bank and sneered in disbelief. John's crowd became huge, all Israel was tingling with his words, the Baptist's growing fame had drawn pilgrims from all over the land. They were eager for miracles, open minds and hearts ready to be drawn to the Lamb. Men felt in him that power of mastery which is always granted to self-denial. And so Pharisee, Sadducee, zealot, scribe and soldier, priest and publican, all thronged to listen to his words. Even those who did not submit to his baptism were basking in the light. Jesus would later declare "You sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that you might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me." John 5:33-36. The Gospels emphasize the preparatory role of Elijah who makes ready the Lord's way, likening Elijah with John. "The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare the way if the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." "And so they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No." (NASB) "The Lord your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me (Moses); unto Him you shall hearken." Deuteronomy 18:15. John was like a burning torch; the whole man was an apocalypse. John "came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light." John 1:7. Then comes Jesus to be baptized by John who said, "I baptize with water but there stands one among you, whom you know not. He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, after me comes a man which is preferred before me: for He was before me. And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." John 1:26-34. When Jesus came to be baptized, John promptly declared that he was not fit to untie Jesus' shoes. Why was Jesus baptized? Certainly, He did not need to repent. He did it for us and represents us sinners. It was for our sake, not His, we simply follow Him in it. Jesus represented all people, demonstrating that we all need repentance, we all need cleansing. After his baptism, Jesus retired to the barren hills in the wilderness of Judea, where "the Spirit sent Him," where He fasted and nourished His visions. Jesus was tempted of the devil for 40 days. after He returned to where John was baptizing at Bethabara. The Jews at Jerusalem had sent priests and Levites to the Baptist, asking him who he was. The Old Testament prophet said the same thing. "The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah 40:3. John's imprisonment was the event which inspired the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus must increase where John was content to decrease; content that his little light should be swallowed up in the endless dawn of eternity and his head on a platter. In the weeks before John's arrest his disciples had told him that all men were coming to Jesus. John answered that Jesus was the bridegroom, himself only the bridegroom's friend This was John's last testimony. A few weeks later, the uncompromising disturber of all Israel was imprisoned. John the Baptist was many things but a diplomat was not one of them. Being the outspoken prophet that speaks for God could only get him into trouble. John confronted evil with boldness, no matter who was involved. John spoke out against the sins of the ruler: "But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison." Luke 3:19-20. The Baptist had been imprisoned in the fortress palace of Machaerus. The principal object of John's imprisonment was to extract him from public notice because of his attacks on Herod's marriage to Herodias. Some of John's disciples were allowed to visit him and he was kept informed and heard in prison the works of the Messiah. Andrew, John and Peter were following John and became disciples of Jesus. John remained in prison perhaps ten months, the prolonged stay could not have been very agreeable to Herodias or to her daughter, Salome. "And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the King said unto the damsel, ask of me whatever you will, and I will give it you. And he swore unto her, whatever you shall ask of me, I will give it you, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, what shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist." Mark 6:21-24. John was summarily executed and his head delivered to the party. According to Jerome, the adulteress gave vent to her hatred by thrusting a bodkin through the tongue. Herodias ordered the headless trunk to be flung out over the battlements to be devoured by dogs and vultures. The disciples of John succeeded in recovering his body and burying it. Their next care was to go and tell Jesus. The whole nation lamented his death. The Gospel
The concept of gospel has Roman and Hebraic roots. The word gospel is evangel - the good news. The bringer of the good tidings were called evangelists. Among the Romans, the word was used to describe the good news about event in the life of the emperor such as his enthronement and thought of as affecting the whole world. The Hebraic roots of the term are found in the Old Testament prophetic books, especially Isaiah. There the announcement of the future time of salvation is called the "good news." By the time the word was used in the time of Jesus it carried the idea of a prophesied time of salvation. The Gospel of Mark shows the ministry of Jesus marking the beginning of a new era for the world at large. Christianity used this term to designate the most precious "good tidings" of all, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus came preaching the Gospel of a Kingdom not only to come, it is here right now as a Spiritual Kingdom. It is the Gospel of peace and good tidings. Our testimony is considered Gospel, so is our salvation, so is everything Jesus ever did in the hearts of His followers. The Gospel is considered a promise and we are told to have faith in it, not only to believe it but to live it, preach it, stand on it, trust in it, fellowship in it, let it shine, praise it, confirm it, labor in it, further it and defend it. The primary admonition that should give us pause is that we are to be subject to it. Paul wrote "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, To preach another gospel is to be under a curse. This Gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached to the whole world until the end, perhaps this is our final thrust. Among the preachers of the Gospel are the evangelists whose job it is to propagate the Gospel. The Gospel of the Kingdom is Jesus' life and teaching in our hearts as we acknowledge Him as King. Jesus came to save souls, He came as an example for us to follow as we, the body of Christ, live for Him as Lord and flesh out His Kingdom by His Spirit. The Kingdom is equity, peace and justice and also a future hope. Pentecost may be understood as the beginning, not only of the Christian Church but as the impetus that took the Gospel of the Kingdom into the far reaches of the earth. "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter." Ecclesiastes 4:1. Jesus teaches us that it is the Gospel of the Kingdom that will be preached to the poor. The Kingdom was Jesus' first resolve, His teaching and parables were Kingdom centered and focused on a loving and forgiving God, but also a just God. If the Kingdom is now, and it is, we must act now to bring about the Kingdom to come. It's going to be a lot better there but things can get better here too. Our responsibility is especially in the prophetic fulfillment of the Kingdom as regards to the revival harvest and the liberation of the oppressed. Make no mistake about it, Jesus is careful to distinguish His Kingdom from others, His is a Spiritual Kingdom on the side of the poor against the forces of mammon and always has been. The Kingdom is brought about by liberated Christians and cannot be realized outside of social praxis and a preferential option for the poor. Praxis is the Greek word for action, like the Book of Praxis (Acts) of the Apostles in the New Testament. The Church really needs to get with it on this concerning the poor, Jesus really is directing it all. This may be the poor down the street or in the inner cities but just as likely is the effect that preaching social justice will have among developing countries. To be of this world is imperialism, war and oppression, including supposed Christian countries with supposed Christian values Progress is movement toward a goal, the development of getting from here to wherever. God has revealed His Spirit through history and revealed at the fullness of time. In this Kairos time, God will again send His Son. Jesus was and is a social reformer and the more that we realize it and put that awareness into action, we are progressing toward the Kingdom. The message of the gospel is not merely awaiting God's apocalyptic action, Jesus confronted the status-quo in Israel at one point after another, He attacked the economic evils of a corrupt religious system, He attacked the proud and rich, anti-social class prejudice, the tyranny like "that fox" Herod, the blasphemy of markets in the temple courts, the unfairness to women. Jesus went about preaching this Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus shared the hope of Israel that was real to the people - a divine intervention in history that will ultimately usher in a time of peace. The Gospel writer Mark starts his history with the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our English word gospel is from the Greek "evangelion" and the Anglo-Saxon "god-spell," good story or good news. It signifies that the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the Gospel. That is why it is a question of entering into the Kingdom of God, into "life", into "joy," not just waiting for it. Jesus and John the Baptist both proclaimed the Gospel being at hand. If there is a difference between the kingdom of this world and the Heavenly Kingdom, we can easily identify it but when the Spirit entered into the world with the blessings of atonement, things changed. We may be in the kingdom of this world and the devil may be the god of it but through grace, mankind had entered into a new creation, right here, right now. We know that not everyone will be justified, only those that do the will of the Father which begins by initial faith in Jesus and the power of His name. The Kingdom is certainly something that is entered into, "for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:11. There are false teachers in the Church that say that the Kingdom is totally in the future and we can't mix Kingdom teaching like the Sermon on the Mount with anything in our dispensation of grace. This is called normative dispensationalism by those who indoctrinate it and nonsense by everyone else. The Kingdom is indeed yet to come but it is also here. God is still working in history to further His Kingdom and to reconcile Israel. It is taught in the Lord's prayer that there is a Kingdom in Heaven and a Kingdom on earth. The Kingdom of God is now, in that Jesus is reigning over our hearts, and in the future, when Jesus will be reigning over the nations. Those present at Pentecost arrived at a point in their Spiritual walk that illuminated their minds, giving them a new view of the Kingdom of God in that it was not just a political empire in the future, but a Spiritual reality now. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. John the Baptist preached that the Kingdom was at hand but we have to realize that there has been a two-thousand-year interval since then. God gave us the age of grace to graft the Gentiles into the vine and give them an inheritance under the promise given to Abraham. The Kingdom was forfeited by the Jews when they rejected Jesus as King and once the message was rejected by the Jews in the Early Church, Paul and others went to the Gentiles. There is no theocracy yet in this world's government, we are in the times of the Gentiles, satan is the god of this world and the restoration of the two houses of Israel is still in the future. Our swords are not yet beaten into plowshares and the wolf does not yet feed with the lamb. "Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet." 1 Corinthians 15:24-25. It is the unrighteous Gentile world powers that are marching into Armageddon, Jesus will intervene somehow and put down all temporal power. To simplify it, I believe that Jesus is the soon coming King and if you proclaim Him as Lord and King right now, then you are in that Kingdom already. God is in control of your world only as you give Him control of your life. That is the Kingdom. During the age of the Law, if you did good works, God would bless you. In the age of grace, God has already blessed you, now go and do good works. In the Old Covenant, good works were required, in the New Covenant, good works are a responsibility in response to salvation by grace. Like St James said, without works, faith is dead being by itself. In the Old, salvation is earned, in the New, it is a free gift. We are to be the representatives of that Kingdom and preach the good news so that others can come in. Men and women do not fully begin to experience the abundant life until they come into the Kingdom of God and allow the Kingdom to work within and through them. "Hearken, My beloved brethren, Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he has promised to them that love Him?" James 2:5. "The Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and the dominion endures throughout all generations." Psalm 145:13. "But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you." Luke 11 :20. "And when He was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said "The Kingdom of God comes not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here, or Lo there, for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20-21. "But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Kingdom of God." Luke 9 27. "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14. God is working in history to bring about His Kingdom. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom to come and it is this Kingdom that will be preached to the poor. The Kingdom of God will not "come with observation" but will silently increase, wherever it is set up, and spread from heart to heart, from house to house, from town to town, from one kingdom to another. Spiritual Christians have often been scolded by our "realist" friends that we cannot usher in the Kingdom of God by acting as if it were already here. Yet this is precisely what Jesus taught. If we are ready to take the teaching of the Bible as complete truth and to collectively order our lives here and now by the laws of a transcendent Kingdom, then the Kingdom would break in upon the world anew and take them unaware. If the Church will save itself and the world, it will be at the point as we yield to the power from where it comes. The Church must declare itself before the world that it is not an end to itself but is a means to the end of the Kingdom of God. It must be disciplined by the Kingdom and act and live for Kingdom ends. What is the secret? Jesus has made us complete in ourselves. He is the power; we wield His power. When we once realize that this universal and unlimited power of Spirit is at the root of all things and of ourselves also, then we have obtained the key to the whole premise - "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you". John Wesley wrote: "it is termed the Kingdom of God because it is the immediate fruit of God's reigning in the soul... It is called the Kingdom of Heaven, because it is (in a degree) Heaven opened in the soul." Wesley's words on the way to the Kingdom included loving your neighbor and that a heart right towards God and man implies happiness as well as holiness. "For it is not only righteousness, but also peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." David wrote that "the Lord has prepared His throne in the heavens and His Kingdom rules over all." Psalm 103:19. The apostle Barnabas wrote in his epistle, "Consider, my children, what that signifies: he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end...And He rested the seventh day...that when His Son shall come and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and moon, and the stars; then He shall gloriously rest in that seventh day." If you have indeed been taken out of this world in Christ, then you a part of the Heavenly Kingdom now. Those that place their hopes in this world will be part of a kingdom that is earth bound. As Jesus taught it, the Kingdom of God was the gift of God and not to be entered into by men's striving. It was being ushered in through Him as a future hope, at the same time already here. To Jesus, men had not really begun to live until they had entered the Kingdom of God, and to be in it was to have abounding, eternal life. For the Gospel to be preached effectively, it must be taught in the same proper structure that we are discussing. The restoration of the apostolic and prophetic ministries is foundational, without the foundation, the structure will crumble, that is why we have so many competing voices in the Church. The Church is in a mess and God has given us the proper foundation to build upon and it is found in the Gospel, which is found in the Bible. War and Peace Will there be peace in the world in our time? Not until Jesus, the Prince of peace establishes His Kingdom following the Day of the Lord. The greatest argument against pacifism is the misunderstood passage that Jesus has brought a sword, but this is the sword that divides in relationship to the truth, not the sword that kills. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Another argument equates pacifism with passivism, that the argument against war is to do nothing. The teachings and example of Jesus are essentially pacifist, many Christians however are not necessarily pacifist. Jesus predicted wars and rumors of wars. True, but we are not just to sit idly by and wait for the millennium to overtake us without doing something about establishing a new age of peace. There is no doubt but that there will be trouble and war and tribulation in the land, especially in these last days but we are called to build the Temple of God which includes establishing the peace. Even so - look out! "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; let your hands be strong, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of You have been warned, you want peace? Stay out of the affliction. You want to be part of the restoration of the Temple? Get out of Babylon first and don't bring your Babylonian baggage with you. We still have the responsibility to do something to bring in peace and whatever our actions, there will be good coming out of it. Among those who have chosen to live by that dream are Christian pacifists and peace activists inspired by compassion, prophetic and Biblical vision, blessing, and command. Are you part of a Babylon that despise people of peace? "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:9. Mostly, it's just misguided Christians that think that speaking peace is something that comes from the evil one, a left-wing conspiracy dominated by long-haired hippie peaceniks and we as Christians are not called to any kind of peace movement or activism of any kind. That is the attitude that I have seen from a lot of people through the years that has allowed oppressive dictatorial people to flourish and supposedly good Christians to support unjust, immoral wars. Other Christians have regarded particular wars as occasions of Christian duty, pointing to Biblical understandings of war as a Divinely sanctioned means for combating intolerable threats to life, liberty, and faith and of course, to protect their economic interests. Even if that is true, there is still a need to promote peace and to think otherwise is to submit to a contentious demonic spirit. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9. Ten Commandments: "You shall not kill." Moses: "For the Lord your God is He that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." Deuteronomy 20:4. The Psalmist writes: "Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land." Psalm 35 19. Remember that David was not allowed to build the first Temple because He was a man of war. We may generally regard pacifists as those that are against war and violence but what are Christians to do when confronted by evil men bent on oppression and violence when peaceful means fail? Abel Muzorewa was a Bishop in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe during the non-violent struggle for justice, freedom and dignity for black people and had this to say: "How should these Christian families react to these acts of unprovoked savagery? Should they continue to strive peacefully against brute force?... To act in self-defense at such times is, I believe, to use 'righteous violence'... It is as a last response, taken in self-defense, when all non-violent methods have been tried and spurned by our oppressors. This is why I am a freedom fighter. This why I support the armed struggle. I cannot sit smugly and passively in the comfort of my home while my people are being tortured to death, shot down or bombed. The pacifist must ask himself how anyone professing a doctrine of love can prefer evil or put up with oppression." I have to say that if my family was confronted with threats to their life, I would not hesitate to fight. This, however is as a last resort. I find it deplorable that a country, any country, would support acts of aggression or preemptive warfare in the name of preserving the peace. Paul wrote "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil." Romans 13:1-4. Being a young man in the sixties, this passage had been a stumbling block until I understood that it is the government itself that had become the evil and resisted the original freedom and constitutional basis that America in God's grace was founded upon. Were the American patriots who fought in the Revolutionary war, wrong? Are the people's movements in the third world wrong if they resist the right-wing death squads and violence against their families? If violence is done to the people in the name of nationalism, is it wrong to resist them? I must ultimately realize that there is the higher power that is over those that have rejected the ordination of God and it just might be that ordained power that God is giving us as well to resist what is evil. If the powers that be, resist the ordinance of God and become a terror to good works and receive damnation, who is to say that we are evil for resisting them? Only the powers that seek to preserve their privileged positions will argue against that. My Dad served in World War II; he was not wrong. In my own case, I dodged the draft in the sixties by joining the Marine Corps reserves and never got out of California. I was part of a Marine unit close to San Francisco that marched against the Vietnam war. That would be considered treason and cowardice for some but if there is a righteous attitude of service that I could identify in my life, marching against an unjust war would be at the top of the list. The only Vietnam vets I know or knew, either died over there, came back all messed up with mental illness and drug addiction or ended up homeless on the streets. I loved my country but ashamed at what was happening and believe that if others cannot join me in my shame of an immoral war that they are the ones under a delusion. Can you imagine a Christian father that would rather see his son enlist in the military to fight in an immoral war than demonstrate for peace. The apostate church is full of them. Is that not delusional madness? Christians are not cowards for standing up for our faith, many of us would just rather face lions in the arena than be forced to kill a man. Tertullian wrote: "Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaimed that he who takes the sword shall also perish by the sword?" Origen saw the Kingdom of God as being fulfilled completely in the hearts of believers when he states "For we no longer take up 'sword against nation' nor do we 'learn war any more,' having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader." St. Augustine wrote: "In war even, if you must needs still be engaged in it, hold to the faith, seek after peace." The Christian concept of peace stands counter to the God of war who went before Moses, Joshua and David and into battle with them. Many of the actions led by Gandhi, King and other apostles of non-violence more visibly reflect similarities to an industrial strike than to the traditional ways of religious non-resistance. Whether it is physical violence or spiritual violence, violence suggests destructiveness, which is intrinsically evil when it effects innocent people. Violence takes many forms, much of it is less obvious than physical violence, namely economic exploitation, injustice, discrimination and oppression. Many people who are condemned as insurgents, revolutionaries and rebels are merely protecting their countries from foreign invaders. Force and violence are present in the world as we confront it, and we cannot proceed as if they were absent. I do not believe our ends to be achieved by violence but by non-violence, passive resistance and the golden rule. "But I say unto you: That you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matthew 5:39. "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing." 1 Peter 3:9. I have found three basic types of non-violence: 1. non-resistance. 2. passive resistance. 3. active nonviolent resistance or nonviolent direct action of an affirmative or aggressive kind. Civil disobedience or civil resistance is a form of nonviolent direct action that sometimes involves breaking the law We must understand this. Just because Jesus said that He is bringing a sword does not invalidate what He did on the cross. The teaching and example of Jesus are essentially pacifist and reveal, especially on the cross, an alternative method of meeting and overcoming evil which renders all violent methods obsolete. He was beaten, scourged, and nails driven into his body and He still forgave them. The purity of His love in the face of the most evil event in human history is the supreme example for us to follow. Our warfare is Spiritual and, in all circumstances, the Church is bound by that ethic. We may demonstrate, we may blow our trumpet in prophetic denunciation, we may protest louder than any of the others but there is no example of Jesus for us to make war. His example was that He did not raise His voice to prevent being obedient to the cross and Peter was rebuked for raising his sword. Jesus knew that Jerusalem was about to be destroyed but did He tell them to stay and fight? No, He told them to get away at the first opportunity. There are of course the sincere but unenlightened Christians that argue on the contrary, that His teaching is not necessarily pacifistic. There will be revival in the land but it will not come from the war-mongers, it will come from the children of God who make every effort to conciliate peace. It must be argued however, that although Jesus was essentially a pacifist, nowhere in the New Testament does it forbid taking up arms in a just cause. Modern Christians can find ample resources in our own tradition that stand for war as well as peace and non-violence. There are peace loving Christians but there are plenty of warrior Christians as well. Which represent true Christianity? It depends on the circumstances, you choose. Neither would abandon their faith but one invites destructiveness while the other does not. Many pacifists regard war as an evil, tantamount to casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. I think that Jesus virtually leaves the question open. Pacifism does indeed appear as a dangerous modern heresy to the fundamentalists, especially in the United States. Now that the cold war is over, the military and local police have often turned toward the American people itself and now we are the enemy. More and more, the police are militarized, especially after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The opposing political parties are arch-enemies, not cooperative partners. Hermann Goering, the Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II gives us a good example of the fascist warmongering that has engulfed America: "Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." Isaiah: "Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes there shall not know peace. Therefore, is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness." Isaiah 59:7-9. In legislating for an ideal Kingdom, Jesus' teaching was pacifist, His ethic was non-resistance, forbearance in the face of aggressive evil and taught us that we are to love our enemies. Did Peter suggest that we are to be pacifists or to seek war? He wrote: "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." 1 Peter 3:10. The Millennium Although Jesus reigns in our hearts now, the millennium is a thousand-year period when Jesus will reign over the nations. In the third century, Origen began to present the Kingdom as an event that would take place not in space or time but only in the souls of believers. Origen substituted the collective reign on earth in the future with an eschatology of the individual soul. Looking forward to the millennial Kingdom on earth is called chiliasm. When Christianity became the dominant force in religion in the West and the official religion of the Roman Empire, opposition to chiliasm became emphatic. I believe that the Kingdom is now, the thousand-year reign is in the future following the Day of the Lord. We that believe in a millennium to come are called pre-millennial or futurists; those that believe that we are in the millennium now are called a-millennial. Post-millennialists believe that Christians will bring in a period of peace for a thousand years and then the second coming at the end. There are other shades of millennial thought but this is an issue that has created much conflict from prideful know-it-alls that think it makes a difference. My favorite pastor is a pan-millennialist who believes that everything will pan out in the end. The conservative, ecclesiastical form represented by St. Augustine had removed the idea of the 1000-year reign of Christ by assuming that it is fulfilled in the Christian Church. Augustine had written in his "City of God" that the book of Revelation was to be understood as a spiritual allegory; as for the millennium, that had begun with the birth of Christianity and was fully realized with the Church. Augustine's opinion became orthodox doctrine and by doing so, the Church had given up the true ideal of the Gospel of the Kingdom. During this time, the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. What a time that will be. It will be a new earth, a physical earth, not a spiritual allegory, there will be no sea, all tears shall be wiped away, suckling children will play with snakes, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the desert will bloom, the wilderness blossom and the parched land sprout pools. We will live in the houses that we ourselves have built, we will eat the fruit from our own vineyards, each under our own vine and fig tree. No more hunger or thirst, the Lamb shall feed them and they will drink of the fountain of living waters. Do these pertain to flesh and blood? Are not these things yet to come? No more violence or oppression, nor more darkness, the Lord Himself will be our light. Are we to spiritualize these things as to the Christian era? Are we to preach a heaven and hell and ignore the Kingdom to come, should not the Gospel of the Kingdom include a Gospel view of the millennium? The Book of Revelation encourages Christians to see themselves as the chosen people of God. The Gospel of the Kingdom provided a present and a future hope, we were chosen both to prepare the way for and inherit the millennium. We don't have to understand all these things right now. Whether it is in the future or not is not important and no matter how we believe - it will happen God's way, not ours. For myself, I still believe that there will be a thousand-year reign of peace to come after the tribulation period but that is my opinion. The Epistle of Barnabas mentioned a belief that was widely held at the time that, even as there had been 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, and 2000 years from Abraham to Christ, so there would be 2000 years for the Christian era, and then would come the millennium even as the 6 days of creation were followed by the day of rest. Barnabas: "He finished them on the 7th day and he rested on the 7th day. Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in 6000 years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. And what is that he says: And he rested the seventh day, that when His Son shall come and abolish the season of the wicked one, and judge the ungodly and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars; then He shall gloriously rest in that 7th day." Barnabas XIII: 4-8. I worked out the Genesis genealogies years ago in Bible College and it does add up to six thousand years from Eden to now Just as God rested on the seventh day, a sabbath rest for man awaits. Justice is always the foundation of peace; the Kingdom of God will have no real peace until justice is established. We hear lots of voices preaching peace but be aware of false peace, the true peace that we seek endures forever. Elijah had to endure the forces of Ahab and so do we, in praxis, organization, conversation and politics. As we denounce this new generation of vipers, release is brought to the captives. A. Kempis wrote "And therefore there is no peace in the heart of a man who is carnal, nor in him who is given up to the things that are without him, but only in him who is fervent towards God and living the life of the Spirit... Many a time I have said to you, and now say again, give yourself up, resign yourself, and you shall have great inward peace. Give all for all; demand nothing, ask nothing in return; stand simply and with no hesitation in Me, and you shall possess Me." In the Bible, peace was a salutation along with grace - peace be unto you, peace be on this house, perfect peace, peace be multiplied. It is often still used in that sense, Shalom, for example. Peace is the fruit of order and will only be achieved fully in the future Kingdom of God. Nuclear weaponry has drastically changed the nature of warfare. Counting the people now living and the people who have died in the last 75 plus years, the majority of the population since the beginning of mankind has lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation. And what of our reaction, response and responsibility? "For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." Romans 14:17-19. Look within you. You are hid in Christ, insulated but laid bare and vulnerable if without our strength in the Spirit. "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." James 3:17-18." A theology of peace are those Ears that Hear the Spirits of God in the Kingdom of God and then placed directly into the ministry of the Church. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the author of peace, the Lord of peace, He is our peace. If He is truly in our hearts, perfect peace will begin there and radiate as far out as our faith can drive it. The Scriptures point to an eschatological peace, a final, full realization of God's salvation when all creation will be made whole. Sometimes we must first go through those trials and tribulations that are necessary steps to peace. The Anti-Christ through peace will destroy many and when the time comes that the world thinks that they are in peace and safety, sudden destruction shall come. Solomon the preacher wrote that there is a time for war and a time for peace. To do something to bring about the Kingdom of peace takes courage but better than just laying around doing nothing. Robert McAfee Brown: "If you choose to work for peace in later years, you will be called naive or dangerous - an appeaser, a coward, a traitor. And one of your hardest jobs will be to try to love such people even as they vilify you. Take heart from the fact that here too you will not be alone; that there is an increasing community of those who will side with you and seek with you to break down barriers of misunderstanding and ill will." We are to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:3. In history, efforts to pursue both peace and justice are at time in tension, and the struggle for justice may threaten certain forms of peace. Peace is a gift of God, a calling and a human work. What we need now is the inner peace that the Holy Ghost gives, to give us the strength to help bring about the future peace without end. And we need the courage to stand up against those that would threaten peace. John Dewey once said, "The only way to abolish war is to make peace heroic." We "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Romans 10:15b. Social Justice A society is just if it renders to its people what is due them; the laws of the state however may be unjust. Justice and judgment are in the habitation of God's throne. If justice is taken concretely, it indeed means the laws and institutions in which love is embodied. God is love, therefore to seek justice is to seek the will of God. A government based upon illiberal law and order ignorant of justice is an oppressive and corrupt government. Justice is fulfilled in love and abrogated in the violation of human rights. Robert McAfee Brown had this to say: "First we can insist on a distinction between our country and our government. We must make our own the statement of Albert Camus, 'I should like to love my country and still love justice.' Let it be clear: it is because we say Yes to what our country ought to represent ("liberty and justice for all"), that we must say No to what our country has come to represent ('truth... on the scaffold, wrong ... on the throne'). When a country traduces the ideals of the country, it is an act of loyalty to oppose the government." The Lord commands His children to keep the way of justice and judgment. "Thus saith the Lord, Keep judgment and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed." Isaiah 56:1. In the United States, our people always seem to want to go to war, if there is not another country to fight, the hatred and war-mongering will turn inward against our own people. The drug problem around the world is not a criminal problem, it is a moral and medical problem. If the money being wasted on this immoral war on drugs would be used to educate and treat people instead of incarcerating them and robbing them and their families of their possessions and liberty, the next generation might have the wisdom to know better. Some need to be imprisoned, most need treatment. To forbid, only makes the disobedient and rebellious nature of youth to experiment more alluring. And it makes criminals out of people that it should not. Movements for social justice and efforts to aid the alienated, the oppressed, the weak and the poor have owed much to the sort of Christians and Jews motivated by Scriptural exhortation and example, they are the doers of the Word. The prophets cry for justice, not the status quo, we remember the bondage of Egypt, we look to Jesus' example to the poor and outcast, these things all reach out for ideal justice. The bleeding heart of the liberal is the pulsating beat of Jesus Himself. Plans may differ and strategies may conflict, but the Biblical motives remain. "You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt." Amos 5:7 (NLT). Think of all the people that scoff at these words and you see where injustice thrives. Solomon begins his Proverbs by admonishing us to "receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity." Proverbs 1:3. He goes on to say that this instruction of justice is for the wise only, the fools despise it. It is through wisdom that justice is decreed and it follows that doing justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. If we are to have complete and total justice, which is the only justice worth having, every single member must make an individual contribution. We are not as the foolish but we have trimmed our lamps with the oil of the Holy Ghost. This is not mere idealism. Do judgment and justice and it will be well with us but do not and it is an abomination. We are to tear down the high places of idolatry and false religion and establish justice. Amos wrote, "let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos 5:24. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John 1 17. Without that new birth through the Word of truth, all of our living is in vain. The Old Testament taught us the way of truth, the Word of truth, how to walk in the truth, keep and speak the truth. Without judgment, truth will fail and those that will not accept correction, truth is perished. The truth was already present before Jesus, what He did was reveal it to us as a more completed truth. "But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24. Thoreau wrote "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." Loyalty to the truth displays itself in the searching as well as in the finding. Jesus said that He was the truth but beware, sometimes satan your adversary also quotes Scripture and speaks some truth. Gossip can be spoken in truth; backbiting slander can be true but these things are mean spirited and intended to hurt. We are to speak the truth in love. Aquinas taught that "truth must be the last end of the whole universe; and the consideration thereof must be the chief occupation of wisdom. And for this reason, divine Wisdom, clothed in flesh, declares that He came into the world to make known the truth, saying 'For this was I borne, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth."' A few days before his death, Fr. Teilhard wrote "the truth need appear but once in one mind. Nothing can then prevent it from invading everything and inflaming everything." As we approach the full perception of truth, so the life-principle within us expands. The old bonds and limitations which had no existence in reality fall off of us, and we enter into regions of light, liberty, and power of which we had previously no conception. This is that Spirit of truth which shall guide us into all truth. In the book of Hebrews, we are admonished: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Hebrews 10:25-27. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. It was Kierkegaard that said, "there is only one relationship to revealed truth: believing it." Truth is not given to those who think they already have it but to those who are earnestly seeking it, only when truth is found will you be able to know for sure. Truth and love, intertwined and concretely applied, are the elements of the abundant life, happiness and holiness. Emerson wrote: "When a man speaks the truth in the Spirit of truth, his eye is as clear as the heavens. When he has base ends, and speaks falsely, the eye is muddy and sometimes asquint. It is a far greater virtue to love the truth for itself alone, than to love the good for itself alone. Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself." What does it mean to not be of this world? It simply means that we are citizens of Heaven. In Heaven's world there is no sickness, no death, no tears, sorrow, oppression, hatefulness or denominationalism, in short it is a perfect world of love with the perfect King in charge. We are not to put our faith in this world or its worldly leaders, fleshly desires, material trappings and especially, we are not to be lacking in the faith that would lead us away from the wisdom of this world. Remember when John Lennon sang that we should imagine that there is no Heaven above us? The Beatles took a lot of flak for statements like that but now remember what Jesus taught and that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Well, try it. Instead of imagining a Heaven above, try imagining a Heaven within, as a part of you, your very essence. Have faith in the God that lives and acts within you and not just a benevolent Spirit above and beyond somewhere in Heaven. As we allow our souls to actually rest in that Heavenly position, we are approaching that stage of perfection that we are admonished to be in. If we are truly citizens of Heaven and that same Heaven is within us then we should be acting like it and doing the same works that Jesus did. It is very significant that those opposed to faith in Divine healing are the same ones that denounce the faith movement. Without faith, it is impossible to please God and the one thing that will always stand is true faith in the true God. As we are humble enough to know that we are lacking in faith and want more, these things will increasingly come. There is a time soon that we will show ourselves to the world suddenly and swiftly as people of faith and nothing will ever be the same. It will come about when the Church stops striving toward perfection and starts living the perfect life that we have in us already. This is what all creation is advancing toward, the sons and daughters of God working together for the common goal of lifting up an undivided Jesus and praising Him. Let the nay-sayers and skeptics have their day, Jesus is coming soon and a united body will be meeting Him in the Heavenlies as well as in the streets as a witness to all that Jesus is, King of kings and Lord of lords. If we have the faith to believe that with God all things are possible, we should have enough faith to ask God to increase our faith. We are to pray for the sick now, pray for salvation, pray for Spiritual maturity, stop fighting among ourselves and witness to the love of God. The world will finally believe when the prayer of Jesus to the Father has finally been answered: "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one. I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me." John 17:21-23. The overwhelming fact about our world is that the majority of its people are poor, exploited and marginalized. This forces us to realize the chief sign of the times in all its force and meaning, that sign is Jesus the poor person. We cannot dissociate the condition of the poor and oppressed from the mystery of Christ. "The Gospel is good news for the poor." writes Mike Slaughter, "If it is not working to benefit the poor and oppressed, then it is not the Gospel." Jesus presents Himself to us as the chief liberator, and we can recognize Him as such. His condition of poverty is no accident. It is a necessity of all salvation history, and representative of God's unfathomable love. The liberating love of God is ever linked historically to the poor. It is clear that from the very first, Christian faith was community rather than just the faith of scattered individuals. Jesus assures us that one of the signs of His coming is that the poor have the Gospel preached to them. It is as true now as then, but along with the Church going out to the poor, it is the poor of this world that are becoming the Church. These precious ones are not waiting for Heaven, they are trying to bring Heaven down to earth. The liberating praxis and revival fervor moving in the third world today bears witness to the Gospel message moving among the poor. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in Spirit and the meek will inherit the earth. Here is a mystery, try to fit the Queen of the South into the equation. C.S Lewis in his book "Mere Christianity" writes that "Charity - giving to the poor - is an essential part of Christian morality, in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there is no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to be producing that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality." Knowing our place in the Body of Christ gives us the wisdom and knowledge to be able to denounce the oppression and minister to those that God would have us minister. Amen? Wisdom is crying in the streets. Our option for the poor and oppressed is not one among many others, it is our key act. Our responsibility is a life commitment to the Kingdom of God and its eschatological function. We recognize that the poor are the bearers of the message of human solidarity. Only as we, the Church, are open to the moving of the Spirit among the poor and dispossessed people of God will they be able to contribute to a theology for a positive change in society, the luke-warm church has yet to realize that. As the fact is realized that the relationship in which wealth causes and produces poverty, one is forced to choose between the oppressor and the oppressed. The poor are not just the mission of the Church, they are also its salvation, and the presence of Jesus will be felt especially. We have the foundations, we know from where we have fallen, now is the time to act. John Wesley called it the demonstration of "social holiness." Only by incarnating itself in the reality of the Third World and serving the most needy can the Church hope to purify itself, renew its life, and recover the true impulse of the Gospel of the Kingdom. If it does this, it will immediately turn into a sign of contradiction and suffer persecution; and this will prove that the Church is the authentic bearer of the Word and the promise of its Founder. That takes courage. It is either that or leave it to others, especially the poor themselves who can leave these dead, cold, rich Christian churches behind and fulfill the promises of the Church age without them. The strategy of fighting inflation by cutting programs for the poor and reducing the taxes of the rich has never worked yet continues unabated. Lukewarm Christians decry the cost of living never realizing they are sowing the seeds of their own discontent. Untold millions of Americans live below the official poverty line, a lot more than the government counts. When people are deprived of the fundamental necessities, as are even more millions of human beings in other countries, their capacity for development is frustrated at the most basic level. Within the social welfare pretense, programs for poor people tend to be poor programs, inadequately funded and widely resented by the majority of the population who are ineligible for their benefits. President Johnson's War on Poverty was such an example; if the government had been really serious about it, we could have won the war on poverty. It's no secret why Nixon gave up on it, we allow the same situations to exist. A prosperous society that allows poverty in its midst points to Babylon in the belief that poverty itself is a sign of weak character but not as a symptom of social or economic injustice. America does not invest in the poor, it invests in the The city of Sodom is described by Ezekiel with her daughters: "Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister, Sodom; pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore, I took them away as I saw good." Ezekiel 16:49-50. White-washed Christians stress Sodom's sexual misconduct and selfishly ignore her sinful unconcern for the poor. Sounds like some people I know sitting smugly by in the pews. Many people are suffering, many are hurting, many have needs not being met because of the restrictions society have placed on them as second-class citizens. Some social agencies seem content to care more about the health and welfare of children in distant lands than those in America. From God's viewpoint, poverty is no disgrace but to a tepid church, it is loathed. What has to happen is a radical change of direction and an entirely new world view. American society is especially oppressive to the poor. There is the distorted image that poverty is the cause of crime and reflected in the criminal injustice system. This bias against the poor is reflected at every stage from arrest to conviction. Most of the victims are poor. Our jail and prisons are full of those unable to pay for a good lawyer or simply can't pay the fine. A poor person is more likely to be arrested for petty crimes than a rich person. The police will pull over junky cars before nice ones. Our civil courts are full of expletive deleted lawyers defending the rich in order to take advantage of the weak. The alcoholic poor, criminalized, long defined as a major problem in our society is not understood as a health problem and that is an important fact about them. The alcoholics I know are not sent to rehab or detox but to jail, which helps no one. The poor tend to become pessimistic and depressed; they see immediate gratification instead of saving. There are more Americans living in slums than on farms. Speculative real estate and public land sitting idle is many more times the size of which these people live on. This is a grievous sin in the eyes of God. The United States Bureau of Land Management is said to be sitting on 245 million acres of land, mostly idle. Fact is that if there was a rich side of town that was truly good, there would not be a poor side to point to as bad. Avarice and corruption have contaminated the American church and its most prominent ministers. Christians everywhere put up a false god named Je$u$ and look for financial blessings in the congregation. The worst of them justify themselves in the name of the laissez faire of manifest destiny and the god of free enterprise to look down on the poor and exploit them until they have nothing. This is the nature of the beast who is worshiped instead of the true God. These are the whitewashed hypocrites that Jesus has always opposed, laying up treasures for themselves and storing nothing in Heaven. The worst of them come in the name of the Lord with words of comfort, peace, prosperity and things of this world, blind to their own arrogant bourgeois mediocrity. Putting their own family values above all others they have taught their children how to worship the image of the beast and take its spiritual mark. They look squeaky clean on the outside but have the stench of lukewarm puke inside. The name of Jesus has been used by Christians throughout history to support oppressive powers and economic discrimination. St Francis wrote that "When you see a poor man, brother, an image is placed before you of the Lord and His poor mother." When he met a man poorer than himself, Francis felt only jealous of the poverty that made the poor man more Christ-like than he. Wesley recognized that poverty was not merely a "sore evil", but a social problem, which the government ought to be concerned. The Church never ceased to exalt poverty as one of the highest values and one of the chief means of attaining sanctity, no matter how worldly its practice might often be, for a while anyway. There is a great divide among churches today between those who see poverty as the fault of the poor and those who see it as the fault of the rich. We need to all be seeing the big picture in denouncing the materialistic excesses of this present generation. We have a beast among us intent on bringing us peace in the name of a false democracy and more wars. A time is soon coming when the economy will be overturned, the prophets have promised it will happen. Any socially aware student of the Bible can see a movement of liberation coming, the rich will fall and the resources of the world will be given over. Being socially aware is sometimes accused of being leftist liberal but nonetheless, God is still on the side of the poor. The Law of Moses is very clear. "You shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide unto him and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need... And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock and out of your floor and out of your wine press, of that wherewith the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give unto him." Jesus said: "But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you shall be blessed; for they cannot recompense you, for you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:13-14. Spiritually, humble poverty is true wealth and pampered wealth is real poverty. "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes: so also, shall the rich man fade away in his ways." James 1:9-11. It is possible to see a new way. Our duty to the poor is clear in the Scriptures; if you oppress the poor you will come to spiritual poverty yourself. The Lord Himself will plead the cause of the poor and take the life of those who rob them. The person who gives to the poor shall be repaid and never want for anything, but shut your eyes to the poor and you will incur only God's wrath now and at the time of judgment We must remember that when we are gracious to the poor we are really lending to the Lord and God will repay. The poor man does not always have it so bad. A poor man with understanding can see right through the rich man with no trouble. A poor man can have much Spiritual wealth and be much happier than the rich man. Certainly, it is better to have very little in worldly goods and fear the Lord, than to be very rich and live in turmoil. Money is not the root of all evil but the love of money is. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked; house the homeless because Jesus is there. Jesus wants us to visit Him, he still has no place to lay his head. The word Bible is derived from the Greek Biblia or "the books." The word Scripture is derived from the Latin and means the writings. The Bible is the sacred book of Christians and Jews and if you include those "of the book," Islam as well. The Bible stands at the center of that community in which we find our life as Christians. Christianity did not spring from the New Testament but the New Testament from Christianity. Long before it had written literature, Christian faith had shown itself a triumphant and transforming power. This is an important distinction to separate from those that elevate the Bible to an idolatrous position. "Who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:6. The truth of the Bible can only be interpreted absolutely correct through the power of the Holy Spirit. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:13,14. The Bible has been misinterpreted continually throughout history, even more to this day, bringing forth misconceptions, misunderstandings, heresy and a dissection of the true Word of God. Because the traditions of men are taught from the pulpit by people who do not know any better, it is not entirely the fault of the congregation if the errors are then reproduced. Even pastors fall prey if they are taught wrong, they are simply victims as well. We all need to grow into maturity by examining ourselves and what we have previously been taught. Because unity is established through the Spirit and revelation is progressive, as such, the Lord will bring many more of us in agreement on Scripture in the fullness of time. To be true to Scripture, we must often go to the original texts and understand historical context before we can understand and teach others. Far too many Christians do not take the words of Paul to heart when he asked Timothy to "study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth." Timothy 2 15. We must humble ourselves to be taught new things because it challenges our former ways of thinking. A.W. Tozer is quoted as writing, "the sacred page is not meant to be the end, but only the means toward the end, which is knowing God Himself." I have talked with many that are committed believers with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, one central thing I find in common is the reverence for Scripture. We believe in the inspiration and what I have found in those that do not is an absence of the fullness of the Spirit. That is not a statement of criticism, just a precise observation. Faith in God according to His fullness will reveal His Word as true as nothing else can and since He is powerful enough to protect it through the centuries from corruption, He is powerful enough to illuminate you. I have worked with many that have a real concern for the poor and know nothing about the Bible. Would I rather work with them than one who uses the Bible as a club? Of course. It is much better to live out the Scriptures and know nothing than to know it all and do nothing. We are not to have faith in the Bible as much as we are to have faith in the One who the Bible directs us to. Knowledge of this is one of the main paths that can lead us to the true path. God inspires many of us regardless of Biblical inspiration and certainly no differently than He inspired the Biblical writers. Much of the Bible is the recorded history of God's dealing with humanity. Progressive revelation has not ceased in the hearts of His people.
by Jay Atkinson
purifications, but no baptism before John's had so great and so mystical a significance. It represented the manner in which the souls of men must be cleansed from all sin and made partakers of Jesus' Spiritual Kingdom and as a symbol of the inner transformation and the effects of sincere repentance.
and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10. Peter wrote "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begins at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17.
behind them. True followers of Christ convert through love, peace and deliverance from oppression, spiritual, physical or economical. As a tool for evangelism, Jesus' way is the best. Previously the Church's business had seemed to be primarily a matter of saving souls. It now becomes imperative for us to regard social justice and human rights as related to the Kingdom of God as an adjunct to evangelism.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 3:5-10.
the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the Temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor." Zechariah 8:9-10.
can strive for that inner peace first. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5 1. It is in our search for peace within that gives the Spiritually minded person the motivation to act. If there is conflict within your spirit, the conflict must be resolved before inner peace is achieved, many times the Lord will use that conflict to let you know what to do in the Spirit, so seek after that peace. "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace." The Lord will give that peace unto His people and give them strength to preach the Gospel of grace and peace. Stand together on this, we have been called to peace, those in the Spirit who love have peace, not fear, and Jesus will not leave us alone if our minds are stayed on Him and we earnestly desire to be sealed.
Justice has to do not so much with the quantity of good or evil, but in which the manner it is distributed. Retributive justice and punishment should certainly be considered but the essential points of justice and liberty remain the same. Mandatory minimum sentences, zero tolerance, three strike laws, imprisonment for non-violent offenses and police harassment of the poor and minorities all combine to condemn this present generation and alienate the people against authority. The choice of paying a fine or going to jail is simple bribery and extortion, the rich go free and the poor go to jail. "Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment never goes forth: for the wicked compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds." Habakkuk 1:4.
True justice is a Spiritual force and dynamic. It is God acting out His progressive will with us. We are the instruments; it is this dynamic force that gets people to do things and change things. When justice truly gets down into the depths of our soul, the conscious perpetuation of injustice becomes impossible, it just happens. Jesus is establishing justice on earth. The plain ordinary man and woman of today becomes the crusader of tomorrow and in the name of justice and equity, miracles are wrought. "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable," said Martin Luther King, Jr. "Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
The truth of it all is that God is love and the rivers of living water that flows from our innermost being will draw others to the truth. Montaigne wrote that "truth is so great a thing that we should not reject any source that will conduct us to it. Reason has so many shapes that we do not know which to take hold of; experience no fewer." There is a lot of truth dissected and taken to extremes. Too often Scriptures are half-halfheartedly searched to validate our special agenda half-truths. Scripture needs to be diligently searched to discover the whole truth. We need to confront issues head on and get back to the basics.
Poverty in a wealthy society becomes a question of the distribution of goods and opportunity. If Christian praxis and its reference to Jesus is to be meaningful for people today, then it must be lived and expressed within the liberation project of the poor. Here is where our relationship to the world as religious will find real historical roots.
Jesus said Himself that He was anointed to preach to the poor. We have the same anointing as Jesus, we are to preach the good news to the poor, to set at liberty those that are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. He likens the poor to Himself: "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed you? or thirsty, and gave you drink? When did we see you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:34-40. What does it mean to feed and clothe the brethren of Jesus? We can only look on the poor and oppressed with new eyes and resolve to heal their hurts and help end their oppression.
The United States provides its worst-off citizens only a percentage of what they desperately need. It is the poor who will be most cruelly used but the entire nation has experienced a decadence and pay for it in alienation and violence. Today's poor missed the political and social gains of the thirties. The millions who are poor in the U.S. tend to become increasingly invisible. Social programs are voted out, anti-social and police state politicians are voted in, homeless people are warehoused or thrown in jail or ignored, everywhere you look in the inner cities, you find alienation and discontent and the problem gets worse., millions of poor in the richest country the world has ever seen. There is a language of the poor, a psychology of the poor, a world view of the poor. There are popular grass-roots churches spiritually born from the poor, and there are churches that help take care of them but most churches ignore them, vote against them, treat them like outcasts and do more to perpetuate the problem than anyone.
rich so that they may get richer and then throws money to impoverished countries
as a bribe to exploit and impoverish the poor around the world. Poverty and riches stand in God's estimation in the reverse position. If we would only stand up just for our constitutional right to domestic tranquility, we might have enough voices to get things done.
Homelessness has been a great concern of mine for many years. Who cares the most about solving the homeless crisis? Jesus is the most famous homeless man who ever lived. "And Jesus said unto him, 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay His head."' Matthew 8:20. The poor have always been socially powerless, for reasons beyond their control, it is hard to help themselves. Most persons find themselves in poverty because of conditions not of their own making, divorce, loss of jobs, prejudicial hiring practices, low wages, disabilities and many other reasons where new technology and many skills have been rendered useless. Others are just content with their situation and endure their lot quietly. Some are born going downward, and most of them stay down. Some were born without a family structure that inspired learning and some were not. Whatever the reasons, Jesus told us that it will not be the righteous or the ones that have cast out demons or done mighty works for Him but those that have helped the poor. Jesus identifies with the poor, when we look
into the eyes of the poor, Jesus is looking back at us. The poor are poised to possess the Kingdom, so it is incumbent on us to point the way of Jesus.
The 1611 version of the English Bible was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew under the patronage of King James and the culmination of earlier translations and revisions. The Douay Version (1609-10) was the first Roman Catholic Bible in English and translated from the Latin Vulgate which was translated from the Greek and Hebrew.
